PBHA Tutors Join Federal Project

As part of President Clinton's literacy initiative, Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) volunteers on the Federal Work Study Program will be paid to tutor children in reading, PBHA President Roy E. Bahat '98 said yesterday.

Harvard's Student Employment Office (SEO) has received federal funding for literacy projects run by PBHA and by the House and Neighborhood Development (HAND) program as part of America's Reading Challenge--Clinton's effort to promote literacy among grade-school students, Bahat said.

The federal funding will allow existing PBHA reading instruction programs for children to include additional volunteers in after school and summer settings, Bahat said.

The SEO will administer the payments.

"Federal allocation has increased, so schools are getting a little more than in the past," said Martha H. Homer, director of the SEO. "We hope that this [funding] will encourage students to get more involved in the community."

Eligible students will receive additional training in literacy education from PBHA and receive $7.50 an hour for tutoring. Bahat called the added funding "an amazing resource."

In addition to providing financial assistance to existing work-study volunteers, Bahat said the funds may encourage more students to become tutors.

"I think it's going to be great," he stated. "Not only will the program help children develop literacy, it will enable more university students to work with children in a meaningful way."

However, Bahat said he would eventually like to see the federal program fund literacy tutoring for whole families, not just children.

Homer said work-study students have long been employed in community service.

"A lot of work-study students work with PBHA in summer programs, the many public service agencies in the area, and other [English as a Second Language] programs," she said.

Currently, of PBHA's 1,700 volunteers, only the 56 participants in the organization's Stride Rite leadership development program are paid.

Approximately half of the undergraduates who receive university tuition grants, and 23 percent of all undergraduates, are on federal work-study, Homer said.

The federal government pays 60 percent of the wages of work-study students, and the employer pays the remainder. This makes work-study students more attractive to potential employers.